Labrador has kept promise to be a different kind of AG
Jim Jones
When Raul Labrador was running for Attorney General last year, he promised to be a different kind of AG, and boy has he delivered on that promise. He has done things that nobody could ever have expected an Idaho AG to do.
Labrador certainly made a media splash in June when he hauled off, without warning, and brought suit against his own client, the State Board of Education. He claimed the Board violated Idaho’s Open Meeting Law when considering the University of Idaho’s plan to acquire the University of Phoenix. It is universally known in Idaho legal circles that it is highly unethical for a lawyer to sue his or her own client. A district judge agreed and ruled that Labrador was disqualified from personally handling the lawsuit. He had to assign another lawyer to pursue the lawsuit, while the State Board had to hire private attorneys to defend the case. Labrador’s office added additional claims to the suit, but the judge dismissed them, leaving only a single claim for a January trial.
The State Board has consistently argued that Labrador’s employee, a deputy AG, told the Board it could consider the U of I plan in a closed-door session without violating the law. We now learn the astounding fact that Labrador’s office has asked the judge to allow it to take the deposition of the Deputy AG. So, the Attorney General’s office now wants to put the Deputy, who works for the AG, under oath to ask questions about what she told the Board. In the more than 50 years I’ve followed the office, including the eight years I served as AG, I’ve never heard of such strange happenings. It is a further sign of dysfunction within the office.
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